BREAKING: Mississippi To Join “Constitutional Carry” Wave

I’ll be honest: I could have never projected that the surge in “constitutional carry”—open or concealed carry without a government-issued permit—would go this far, this fast.

The Mississippi House concurred with the Senate by passing legislation on Tuesday to abolish the requirement for a concealed carry permit in the state.

The legislation, House Bill 786, expands current carry provisions from carrying in a bag, purse, or satchel without a permit to carrying holstered without a permit, as well. The NRA-ILA reports that Michael Bloomberg-funded Everytown for Gun Safety vehemently and unsuccessfully opposed the bill, which passed the House by a vote of 85-35.

Governor Phil Bryant (R) is expected to sign the bill into law.

West Virginia and Idaho passed constitutional carry into law in March, with West Virginia convincingly overriding the veto of a recalcitrant Democrat governor.

Constitutional carry was very rare until recently, and once Mississippi’s legislation joins that of West Virginia and Idaho later this year, there will be ten states with some form of constitutional carry.

I’d previously stated that, based upon how concealed carry laws spread across the nation from the 1980s until recently, that it might take a decade for the majority of states to toss their permitting systems and go for some form of constitutional carry.

I’m now happily doubting that estimate, and wondering if politics among the states are such that we might achieve that goal in at least half the states a bit faster than I’d guessed.

Not only is constitutional carry passing and turning into law at a faster rate than I expected, but it’s doing by frankly stunning veto-proof margins, and (as we saw in West Virginia) over the objections of powerful law enforcement leader special interest groups.

How long do you think it might be before “constitutional carry” is more common than permitted carry?